Fire scenes can be chaotic places with many firefighters working together to extinguish the flames and save the lives of people trapped inside of the burning structure. This chaos is magnified when multiple fire and rescue companies are called to the fire scene and where burning structures are entered from different locations. In the course of their duties, firefighters may encounter trouble and be in need of rescue themselves. However, in the chaos at the scene of a fire, it is easy to lose track of firefighters resulting in firefighters being left inside the burning structure without oxygen or in other firefighters risking their lives to save a comrade who has escaped the structure through another location.
Traditionally, firefighter accountability has been left to an Accountability Officer who monitors the ingress and egress of firefighters from the scene with a chalkboard or grease pencil board. This method requires the Accountability Officer to write the names of the firefighters, whether they are wearing a breathing apparatus, what time they entered the "hot zone" and where in the burning structure they are working. Firefighters must then report back to the Accountability Officer when they exit the structure so that they are accounted for. If a firefighter does not return within a set period of time, it is the responsibility of the Accountability Officer to send a rescue team to the area where the firefighter was assigned to search for, and rescue, the missing firefighter.
This method has a number of drawbacks. First, the time spent obtaining and writing information from the firefighters takes time away from fire fighting and rescue efforts. This factor is magnified when many firefighters arrive on the scene at the same time. In addition, the need for a separate Accountability Officer for each fire company at the scene reduces the total number of people fighting the fire. Second, the chaos of a fire scene does not lend itself to the requirement that an Accountability Officer check his watch against the information on the board and calculate elapsed time versus the breathing time available from a given breathing apparatus. This is magnified when there are many firefighters at the scene and many critical times to calculate, making it more likely that someone will be overlooked. Third, this process is location specific and requires the firefighter to report either to his specific Accountability Officer or to another officer who must subsequently try to radio the proper Accountability Officer with the information. If the firefighter does not report or no message is received, there is the possibility that other firefighters will needlessly risk their lives trying to save the "missing" firefighter. Finally, should a firefighter be hurt in the course of his duties, this method does not include any way of immediately providing important medical information to personnel at the scene.
Other accountability systems have been developed to overcome some of the drawbacks of the traditional method. One such system is marketed by Clemens Industries, Inc. of Ashton, Md. under the name PAS-V.TM.. This system includes a series of individual personal information cards and plastic tags attached to collector rings which are hung on a color coded binder at a fire scene. Using this system, a single Accountability Officer collects tags from each firefighter as they enter the fire scene. The information cards include important medical and personal information and the plastic tags are color coded to coincide with the type of service provided (i.e. red for engine companies, green for special services, orange for emergency medical services etc.). The Accountability Officer hangs these tags on the binder in a location corresponding with the particular color code and the particular company to which the firefighter belongs. In addition, the system includes specific tags for certain pieces of equipment which are also "tagged in". Once a firefighter leaves the fire scene, he retrieves his tag and the tag for any equipment that he may have tagged in. If any tags remain on the binder, the Accountability Officer knows that the firefighter and/or equipment is still "on scene". In this system, an alarm is sounded either every twenty minutes or after a significant event takes place, after which every firefighter on scene must report back to the Accountability Officer. If a firefighter does not report back, a rescue team is sent.
This system overcomes some of the drawbacks of the traditional system. It requires only one Accountability Officer for a given location and lessens the amount of time required to log firefighters at the scene of the fire. In addition, the regrouping of firefighters either every twenty minutes, or after a significant event takes place, eliminates the need for the Accountability Officer to keep track of a number of critical times, lessening the chance that a firefighter will be forgotten. Finally, the provision of important medical information on the information cards allows rescue workers to immediately treat an injured firefighter without fear of drug allergies or other adverse effects.
However, despite overcoming many of the drawbacks of the traditional system, this system has significant drawbacks of its own. First, the simultaneous reporting to the Accountability Officer by all firefighters, regardless of how long they have been inside a structure or whether they have employed a breathing apparatus, unnecessarily detracts from what would otherwise be time spent fighting the fire and saving lives. Second, as all firefighters must check in at the same time, the Accountability Officer is inundated at these times, creating a higher probability that a firefighter who has escaped the fire will be assumed missing or that a missing firefighter will overlooked. Third, this system does not solve the problem of reporting to Accountability Officers at different locations and, in fact, the simultaneous reporting required by the system exacerbates this problem by the aforementioned inundation of the Accountability Officer. Finally, neither this system nor the traditional system includes any way of maintaining a record of the fire scene for future review.
The applicant knows of no system that allows a single Accountability Officer to monitor firefighters from different fire companies, that eliminates the need for the Accountability Officer to keep track of the time spent by a firefighter inside of a burning structure, does not unnecessarily remove firefighters from the fire scene to report the Accountability Officer, provides an immediate update of the status of firefighters reporting to different locations, and provides important medical and personal information to rescue personnel at the fire scene. Likewise, the applicant knows of no system that allows a record of a fire scene to be kept for future review and training.